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PINE BLUFFS — We’re a bit over one year (yeah, that’s right, one year) into the current campaign for the presidency. The caucuses and primaries have just begun. Super Tuesday is a week in the future. With ten months to go, let’s hope the candidates all have paid-up life and health insurance. This election cycle promises to be the most grueling in history.
So far, on the Republican side, John McCain is leading in the delegate count, having revived his failing campaign with a close win in Florida, the first of the closed Republican primary states. Mitt Romney has garnered two wins and one second place finish in caucus states (Wyoming, Nevada, and Iowa), and one win and two seconds in primary states (Michigan, New Hampshire, and Florida). On the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton has pulled off two wins in caucus states (Iowa and Nevada), and one win and one second in primary states (Nevada and South Carolina), but Barack Obama has shown surprising strength winning handily in South Carolina’s Democrat primary with 55% of the vote to Hillary’s 27%.
Barack Obama? Given the state of today’s world - terrorism and that sort of thing - we shouldn’t need foreign policy experts to tell us that it might not be the wisest or most prudent idea to elect a Muslim or someone with a Muslim background as our president. But apparently common sense isn’t what it used to be. Makes one wonder if those high doses of stress Americans experience these days have caused a temporary loss of sanity, especially among Democrats.
So just who is Barack Obama? What’s his background? Who were his parents? What experience has he had that qualifies him to be president of the United States?
This came to me in an e-mail originating with someone named Donald I. LaFever, Sr. The person who forwarded it to me said, “We checked this out on ‘snopes.com’. It’s factual. Check for yourself.” What appears below was probably written well over a year ago, before the election campaign began. The words in caps are contained in LaFever’s e-mail. I think it’s important enough to pass along. However, I’ve checked Snopes.com myself, and have found several claims that appear below to have been slightly exaggerated, and one or two to be totally false. The rest are accurate. The results of my research appear as author’s notes in italics. So here it is. You decide:
“Probable U.S. presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya, and Ann Dunham, a white ATHEIST from Wichita, Kansas. [Author’s Note: This statement is true].
“Obama’s parents met at the University of Hawaii. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was six years old the family relocated to Indonesia. [Author’s Note: This statement is true]. Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school. [Author’s Note: This statement is true].
“Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that he ‘was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic schools.’ [Author’s Note: Whether or not he takes any pains to conceal the fact that he may have once been or still is a Muslim, is unclear. That he once briefly attended a Catholic school is true].
“Obama’s political handlers are attempting to make it appear that he is not a radical, [that] Obama’s introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce and never again had any direct influence over his son’s education. [Author’s Note: Obama’s father DID return to Kenya after the divorce, but not before moving to Connecticut to finish his education. It IS true that the man’s influence over his son was neither direct nor pivotal. But early on, it was there. Of more significance to Obama’s claim that he’s a Christian now, his mother’s atheistic views seemed to influence Obama as a boy. His own book admits this].
“Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama’s mother, Ann Durham, introduced his step-son to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. [This claim appears to be false. Obama DID attend school in Jakarta, but it may have been simply a public school].
“Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world. [Author’s Note: This is an accurate definition of Wahabism]. Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in the United States, [Author’s Note: That’s correct. It IS]. Barack Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background. [Author’s Note: It is by no means clear when Obama joined this church. However, it’s wise to remember that the United Church of Christ has no dogma. Its members can believe anything they want to believe and still remain in good standing]. Also keep in mind that when he was sworn into office [Author’s Note: as a Senator from Illinois], he did not use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran. [Author’s note: This claim appears to be false, arising from confusion with another politician in a different north central state].
“Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of allegiance nor will he show reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches. [Note: While he was observed and documented doing this at the inception of his presidential campaign, he has since begun to recite the Pledge. But one can only wonder what was behind his earlier refusal].
“Let us all remain alert concerning Obama’s expected presidential candidacy.
“The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level – through the President of the United States, one of their own!!!! [Author’s Note: This is an accurate depiction of a radical Muslim claim, arising from their belief that those who do not accept Sharia Law are infidels and must be destroyed. However, not all Muslims believe this].
“… Would you want this man leading our country? …NOT ME!!!”
When one couples the above TRUE information with the fact that his record while a Senator from Illinois indicates a confirmed leftist; a liberal who hates the capitalist system, advocates higher taxes, more governmental regulation, and bigger government, I probably would not, either. It would be foolhardy to follow the course of Europe and Canada into socialism. Still, it is apparent that at least leftist liberal types in this country might have no qualms about electing a Muslim or someone with a Muslim background to lead the United States. Steve Forbes, once a candidate for the Republican nomination to the presidency, who now sits on the Board of Trustees at the Heritage Foundation, recently remarked: “Liberal politicians seem to have been captured by the far left. Both in Congress and in the campaigns, they are playing to the most radical elements in the country with their rhetoric, stirring up class warfare on the domestic front and surrender to our enemies on the foreign front.”
He’s correct. The people to whom he was referring are those who hate America with a passion for having weathered so many storms and come through as the strongest nation under God in the entire world. To them, America is always wrong. Many of these misguided souls have taken to the hustings to help Obama win election in 2008. Faced with the appalling slate of Democrat candidates, he appears to be the best of a bad lot.
It’s also conceivable that enough ill-informed, un-informed, and un-interested Democrats – you know the type; those who feel that “All politicians are crooks. I can’t be bothered to learn about them.” – or those who owe their seat at the table of power to the politics of victimhood, or those who simply do not want four more years of the Bill and Hillary show, or those who want to see a black man as President, will be fooled into voting for Obama.
Anthony J. Sacco, a writer, licensed private investigator, author of two novels; The China Connection, and Little Sister Lost, and a biography, Echoes in the Wind, holds degrees from Loyola College of Maryland and the University of Maryland Law School. His articles have appeared in the Washington Times, Baltimore Sun, Voices for the Unborn, the Catholic Review, WREN Magazine and the Wyoming Catholic Register. E-mail him at AnthonyjSacco@hotmail.com and visit his blog at AnthonyjSaccosr.townhall.com.